Process of treating nickel ores.



No. 815,717. PATENTED MAR. 20, 1906.

I 0. LANGER.

PROGESS OP TREATING NICKEL ORES.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 8.1905- z SHEETS-SHEET 1 No. 815,717. v PATENTEDMAR. 20, 1906.

' C. LANGER.

PROCESS OF TREATING NICKEL GEES.

I APPLICATION FILE'D JULY8.1905.

2 SHEETS-$111151 2.

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' CARL LANeEE, OF YNsPENLLwcH, CLYDAOH, ENGLANDQAssIGNO-E TO THE-'MONDNIcKEL COMPANY, LIMITED, OF WESTMINSTER,

ENGLAND.

] PROCESS .OF' TREATING NICKEL ones i Patented. March 20, 1906.

\To all'whom it mag concern.-

4 Be it known'that I, CARL LANGER, manu facturing. chemist, a subject ofthe King of Great Britain, residing at Ynspenllwch, Olyd'ach, in thecounty of Glamorgan, England, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Processes of Treating Nickel Ores, of whichthefollowingis aspecification. In specification-of United States PatentNo. 551,220, dated December 10, 1895, is described the now well-knownprocess for obtaining nickel'which consists in heating oxid of nickel ormaterial containing that oxid in a reducing-gas at a temperature between350 and 500 centigrade, allowing the material to cool and subjecting itto the action of a stream of carbonic-oxidgas whereby the nickel isvolatilized in the form of nickel carbonyl. Now it is stated in the saidspecification that 50 centigrade is the temperature preferred by theinventor as that at which the treatment with carbonic oxid shouldoccur,'but that if the operator prefers to allow the reduced material tocool to ordinary atrange of 0 to 150 centigrade at atmospheric mospherictemperature he can do so, inasmuch as it is possible to work attemperatures from 0 to 150 centigrade. In racticing the process on amanufacturing sca e varying and low yields of nickel carbonyl have beenobtained, and as a result I have discovered that this is because theaforesaid-statement as to the permissible range of temperature is verymuch too wide when working atatmospheric pressure. So far from its beingpossile to work at any temperature within the pressure my experimentshave proved that cially successful.

it is essential'to keep the temperature of thematerial between 40" andcentigrade at atmospheric pressure in' order to obtain the bestextraction of nickel or, indeed, such an extraction as will make theprocess commer- Moreover, merely allowing the material under treatmentto cool to 50 centigrade is quite useless in practice,'for the reactionbetween nickel and carbonic oxid evolvesheat, so that the temperature ofthe material rapidly rises again. My experiments have shown that theheat evolved by the reaction raises the temperature of the materiallocally, so thatfor maintaining thetemperature' between the limitsstated it is I impossible to rely only upon natural radia- .tion of thisheat from the apparatus.

the material under treatment with carbonic oxid is kept, at atemperature between 40 and 50 centigrade bymeans of artificial cool-'ing. This may be done in a variety of ways. Seeing, however, that theadjustment of tem- 6o perature is chiefly required locally in theapparatus, Iprefer to pass or allow to pass a fiuid, the function ofwhich will generally be to cool the material so as to counteract theheat evolved by the reaction through passages in the apparatus, aroundor over which passages the material under treatment is moved. 7 V V. v.r

To illustrate the preferred form of my invention, I will describe anapparatus which is an adaptation for the purposes of my invention of thevolatilizer described in specification above referred to. Intheaccompanying drawings, Figure 1. is an elevationof the volatilizer,partly in section'. Fig. 2 is a vertical section; and Fig. 3 a p%an ofone chamber, drawn to an enlarged sca e.

1 The general construction of the volatilizer is similar to thatdescribed in the said specifi- 8o cation-that is to say, it consists ofa number of short vessels a, preferably cylinders superimposed on eachother-and constituting a number of chambers divided by a partition I)and-having a bottom 0. The material is caused by stirrers (1, carried bya rotating shaft 6 to travel over the partition I) from the center tothe circumference, whence it falls through openings f onto thechamber-bottom c, where it is made to travel by the stirrers fromthecircumference to the center, whence it falls through the openings 9onto the par- 7 tition of the next lowerchamber. According to thisinvention the partitions b are made hollow.' In the instance shown they5 are made of two plates, making joint at I) andb with the aid ofsuitable packing, and having a space 6 between them, intowhich water, orother suitable liquid or gas may pass pipe h. To provide a space in thebottom of the chamber, the bottom 0 has a rim 0 on its under surface,which rests on a similar rim 1" on the upper surface of a plate t,supported My, invention relates to processes wherein 5 5 through a pipeh, flowing out again through a mo on the top of the next lower cylinder.The lower flange 7c of the cylinder a rests on the edge of the plate 1',and a suitable packing makes a tight joint between the rims c and t" andbetween the flange k and the plate 6. A space Z is thus formed below thebottom 0, into which water or other suitable liquid or gas may passthrough a pipe n, Fig. 1, and a channel m to flow out again through achannel m and a pipe n, Fig. 1. All the inletpipes h and n are connectedwith the main 0,

1. A process for volatilizing nickel in the form of nickel carbonyl,which consists, in passing carbon monoxid over finely-divided nickel andkeeping the temperature of the 1 said nickel at between 40and 50centigrade.

L 2. A process for Volatilizing nickel in the form of nickel carbonyl,which consists in passing carbon monoXid over material containingfinely-divided nickel and kee )ing the temperature of the said materialat etween 40 and 50 centigrade.

3. A process for volatilizing nickel in the form of nickel carbonyl,which consists in passing finely-divided nickel over assages, passingthrough the passages a flui adapted to keep the temperature of the saidnickel at between 40 and 50 centigrade and passing carbon monoxid overthe said nickel.

4. A process for volatilizing nickel in the form of nickel carbonyl,which consists in passing material containing finely-divided nickel overpassages, passing through the passages a fluid adapted to keep the temerature of the said material at between 40 and 50 centigrade and passingcarbon monoxid over the same material.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

CARL LANGER'.

Witnesses:

OLIVER IMRALL, G. F. WARREN.

